Talk about black ceramic water filters

Saturday 6th July at 12 pm in Saló de Pedra - Antic Ajuntament

Talk by Josep Matés and Laura Guerrero

Ceramic Water Filters are a low cost water purification technology that can be produced locally. There are currently more than 40 factories in the world that produce these filters in countries where there is low access to drinking water.

Josep Matés ceramist from Fonteta (Girona), Laura Guerrero and other researchers from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Barcelona, ​​with the help of Oxfam Intermón, have worked to improve this existing technology to purify the water since the efficiency, in spite of be good for bacteria and protozoa that cause diarrhea, are unable to eliminate the tiny viruses from the water.

After much research and work we have found a simple way to make this technology a better water treatment: Black Ceramic Water Filters.

The black ceramic is achieved by a very old pottery technique that cooks the clay in a furnace adapted to create an anoxic atmosphere inside, the result is that the pieces are completely black due to a metal reduction process.

In 2017 we implemented this new prototype in San Carlos, Ecuador, where 5 years ago there is a factory. We built a black ceramic kiln and produced the first black ceramic filters for a community in Nanegal (Andean region of Ecuador), where there are more than 200 families without access to drinking water. In this community we are following the use and impact on health to ensure the proven efficacy already in the laboratories.

In addition, we are creating manuals on how to adapt this new prototype in the rest of existing factories to spread this improvement internationally. internacional.